1 @node Deprecated features
2 @appendix Deprecated features
4 In general features are intended to be supported indefinitely once
5 introduced into QEMU. In the event that a feature needs to be removed,
6 it will be listed in this appendix. The feature will remain functional
7 for 2 releases prior to actual removal. Deprecated features may also
8 generate warnings on the console when QEMU starts up, or if activated
9 via a monitor command, however, this is not a mandatory requirement.
11 Prior to the 2.10.0 release there was no official policy on how
12 long features would be deprecated prior to their removal, nor
13 any documented list of which features were deprecated. Thus
14 any features deprecated prior to 2.10.0 will be treated as if
15 they were first deprecated in the 2.10.0 release.
17 What follows is a list of all features currently marked as
20 @section System emulator command line arguments
22 @subsection -machine enforce-config-section=on|off (since 3.1)
24 The @option{enforce-config-section} parameter is replaced by the
25 @option{-global migration.send-configuration=@var{on|off}} option.
27 @subsection -no-kvm (since 1.3.0)
29 The ``-no-kvm'' argument is now a synonym for setting
30 ``-machine accel=tcg''.
32 @subsection -usbdevice (since 2.10.0)
34 The ``-usbdevice DEV'' argument is now a synonym for setting
35 the ``-device usb-DEV'' argument instead. The deprecated syntax
36 would automatically enable USB support on the machine type.
37 If using the new syntax, USB support must be explicitly
38 enabled via the ``-machine usb=on'' argument.
40 @subsection -drive file=json:@{...@{'driver':'file'@}@} (since 3.0)
42 The 'file' driver for drives is no longer appropriate for character or host
43 devices and will only accept regular files (S_IFREG). The correct driver
44 for these file types is 'host_cdrom' or 'host_device' as appropriate.
46 @subsection -net ...,name=@var{name} (since 3.1)
48 The @option{name} parameter of the @option{-net} option is a synonym
49 for the @option{id} parameter, which should now be used instead.
51 @subsection -smp (invalid topologies) (since 3.1)
53 CPU topology properties should describe whole machine topology including
56 However, historically it was possible to start QEMU with an incorrect topology
57 where @math{@var{n} <= @var{sockets} * @var{cores} * @var{threads} < @var{maxcpus}},
58 which could lead to an incorrect topology enumeration by the guest.
59 Support for invalid topologies will be removed, the user must ensure
60 topologies described with -smp include all possible cpus, i.e.
61 @math{@var{sockets} * @var{cores} * @var{threads} = @var{maxcpus}}.
63 @subsection -vnc acl (since 4.0.0)
65 The @code{acl} option to the @code{-vnc} argument has been replaced
66 by the @code{tls-authz} and @code{sasl-authz} options.
68 @subsection QEMU_AUDIO_ environment variables and -audio-help (since 4.0)
70 The ``-audiodev'' argument is now the preferred way to specify audio
71 backend settings instead of environment variables. To ease migration to
72 the new format, the ``-audiodev-help'' option can be used to convert
73 the current values of the environment variables to ``-audiodev'' options.
75 @section QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) commands
77 @subsection block-dirty-bitmap-add "autoload" parameter (since 2.12.0)
79 "autoload" parameter is now ignored. All bitmaps are automatically loaded
82 @subsection query-block result field dirty-bitmaps[i].status (since 4.0)
84 The ``status'' field of the ``BlockDirtyInfo'' structure, returned by
85 the query-block command is deprecated. Two new boolean fields,
86 ``recording'' and ``busy'' effectively replace it.
88 @subsection query-cpus (since 2.12.0)
90 The ``query-cpus'' command is replaced by the ``query-cpus-fast'' command.
92 @subsection query-cpus-fast "arch" output member (since 3.0.0)
94 The ``arch'' output member of the ``query-cpus-fast'' command is
95 replaced by the ``target'' output member.
97 @subsection cpu-add (since 4.0)
99 Use ``device_add'' for hotplugging vCPUs instead of ``cpu-add''. See
100 documentation of ``query-hotpluggable-cpus'' for additional
103 @subsection query-events (since 4.0)
105 The ``query-events'' command has been superseded by the more powerful
106 and accurate ``query-qmp-schema'' command.
108 @section Human Monitor Protocol (HMP) commands
110 @subsection The hub_id parameter of 'hostfwd_add' / 'hostfwd_remove' (since 3.1)
112 The @option{[hub_id name]} parameter tuple of the 'hostfwd_add' and
113 'hostfwd_remove' HMP commands has been replaced by @option{netdev_id}.
115 @subsection cpu-add (since 4.0)
117 Use ``device_add'' for hotplugging vCPUs instead of ``cpu-add''. See
118 documentation of ``query-hotpluggable-cpus'' for additional details.
120 @subsection acl_show, acl_reset, acl_policy, acl_add, acl_remove (since 4.0.0)
122 The ``acl_show'', ``acl_reset'', ``acl_policy'', ``acl_add'', and
123 ``acl_remove'' commands are deprecated with no replacement. Authorization
124 for VNC should be performed using the pluggable QAuthZ objects.
126 @section System emulator devices
128 @subsection bluetooth (since 3.1)
130 The bluetooth subsystem is unmaintained since many years and likely bitrotten
131 quite a bit. It will be removed without replacement unless some users speaks
132 up at the @email{qemu-devel@@nongnu.org} mailing list with information about
135 @section System emulator machines
137 @subsection pc-0.12, pc-0.13, pc-0.14 and pc-0.15 (since 4.0)
139 These machine types are very old and likely can not be used for live migration
140 from old QEMU versions anymore. A newer machine type should be used instead.
142 @subsection prep (PowerPC) (since 3.1)
144 This machine type uses an unmaintained firmware, broken in lots of ways,
145 and unable to start post-2004 operating systems. 40p machine type should be
148 @section Device options
150 @subsection Block device options
152 @subsubsection "backing": "" (since 2.12.0)
154 In order to prevent QEMU from automatically opening an image's backing
155 chain, use ``"backing": null'' instead.
157 @subsubsection rbd keyvalue pair encoded filenames: "" (since 3.1.0)
159 Options for ``rbd'' should be specified according to its runtime options,
160 like other block drivers. Legacy parsing of keyvalue pair encoded
161 filenames is useful to open images with the old format for backing files;
162 These image files should be updated to use the current format.
164 Example of legacy encoding:
166 @code{json:@{"file.driver":"rbd", "file.filename":"rbd:rbd/name"@}}
168 The above, converted to the current supported format:
170 @code{json:@{"file.driver":"rbd", "file.pool":"rbd", "file.image":"name"@}}
172 @section Related binaries
174 @subsection qemu-nbd --partition (since 4.0.0)
176 The ``qemu-nbd --partition $digit'' code (also spelled @option{-P})
177 can only handle MBR partitions, and has never correctly handled
178 logical partitions beyond partition 5. If you know the offset and
179 length of the partition (perhaps by using @code{sfdisk} within the
180 guest), you can achieve the effect of exporting just that subset of
181 the disk by use of the @option{--image-opts} option with a raw
182 blockdev using the @code{offset} and @code{size} parameters layered on
183 top of any other existing blockdev. For example, if partition 1 is
184 100MiB long starting at 1MiB, the old command:
186 @code{qemu-nbd -t -P 1 -f qcow2 file.qcow2}
190 @code{qemu-nbd -t --image-opts driver=raw,offset=1M,size=100M,file.driver=qcow2,file.backing.driver=file,file.backing.filename=file.qcow2}
192 Alternatively, the @code{nbdkit} project provides a more powerful
193 partition filter on top of its nbd plugin, which can be used to select
194 an arbitrary MBR or GPT partition on top of any other full-image NBD
195 export. Using this to rewrite the above example results in:
197 @code{qemu-nbd -t -k /tmp/sock -f qcow2 file.qcow2 &}
198 @code{nbdkit -f --filter=partition nbd socket=/tmp/sock partition=1}
200 Note that if you are exposing the export via /dev/nbd0, it is easier
201 to just export the entire image and then mount only /dev/nbd0p1 than
202 it is to reinvoke @command{qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0} limited to just a